Cramer: Cingular to give away 18 months of service with iPhone

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money, and director of "TheStreet.com," says AT&T is planning to steal away Verizon Wireless subscribers by an enticing offer to go along with the iPhone: Free AT&T Wireless subscription for a year and a half with the purchase of Apple's iPhone.



In essence, this would substantially lower the perceived price of the iPhone, providing a great incentive for early adopters.



I'm in!



http://www.thestreet.com/_mktw/funds.../10334546.html
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 69
    AppleInsiderAppleInsider Posts: 63,192administrator
    Thursday's hot iPhone rumor comes compliments of CNBC analyst Jim Cramer, who suggests Cingular/ATT will sidestep subsidization of the Apple handset by giving away lengthy service contracts.



    "In its call, the company made it very clear that it's going to use Apple's iPhone to get customers from Verizon Wireless by giving away its service for a year and a half to those customers who buy the phone," Cramer explained in his blog posting at TheStreet.com.



    The CNBC "Mad Money" host believes the strategy will help the wireless carrier court a flurry of new subscribers while maintaining requests from Apple not to discount the cost of the $499 and $599 mobile devices.



    Take our poll: Would 1.5 years of complimentary cell service increase your likelihood of purchasing an iPhone?
  • Reply 2 of 69
    gordygordy Posts: 1,004member
    I always considered the hidden costs for iPhone could easily kick the price up another 100-200 dollars. If this is true, I may be buying my first cell phone.
  • Reply 3 of 69
    If this is true, this will absolutely be a major lift for Cingular as people will more readily fork over the hundreds for a phone that may end up saving them more in the long run!!!



    The only caveat is this: The iPhone would have to be extremely compelling AND Cingular or ATT (horrible name) would make sure they don't jack up the service fees for iPhone users.



    Great marketing strategy though!!!
  • Reply 4 of 69
    If you consider that $50 * 18 months = $900 . . .



    That's literally a steal, and it's the only way I'd consider getting one. Cingular's 2.5G network with bad voice quality isn't worth paying for, but in this case, I wouldn't be paying for it so it's all good.
  • Reply 5 of 69
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Substantially lower? At a minimum voice plan of say $40 month for 18 months this would actually mean Cingular would be paying you at least $120 to use the iPhone and their service, and a whopping $220 for the base model.



    Could this possibly be true? Does Cingular have some kind of bare bones plan that they might be offering up with substantially lower monthly worth?



    Other questions are:



    --Does the 18 months count against the two year service plan? That is, is your contract up after the last paid six months?



    --If so, will there be anywhere to go with your iPhone at that point, since two years coincides with the term of Apple's exclusive deal with Cingular?



    --If the "free" service is just a basic voice plan, how much will (the probably required) data services be?



    This looks to be a huge win for Apple, one that abruptly changes the "too expensive for normal folk" narrative, assuming the particulars aren't too horrible. Hope it's for real.
  • Reply 6 of 69
    If true, this probably isn't for those people that are already with Cingular. This is clearly a market share grab from the other companies....
  • Reply 7 of 69
    kolchakkolchak Posts: 1,398member
    Except that 18 months of crap is still crap. I wouldn't deal with Cingular even if it were free.
  • Reply 8 of 69
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    I don't expect them to provide the phone service for free, that would be pretty dumb on their part, what is their incentive?



    If the data part of the contract is no extra charge above a standard voice plan, then I might consider it.



    I just checked their site and they claim to not support my area. Did ATT dump their own wireless network to get Cingular? I thought ATT supported my area.
  • Reply 9 of 69
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Reposted from the other, soon to be orphaned thread:



    Substantially lower? At a minimum voice plan of say $40 month for 18 months this would actually mean Cingular would be paying you at least $120 to use the iPhone and their service, and a whopping $220 for the base model.



    Could this possibly be true? Does Cingular have some kind of bare bones plan that they might be offering up with substantially lower monthly worth?



    Other questions are:



    --Does the 18 months count against the two year service plan? That is, is your contract up after the last paid six months?



    --If so, will there be anywhere to go with your iPhone at that point, since two years coincides with the term of Apple's exclusive deal with Cingular?



    --If the "free" service is just a basic voice plan, how much will (the probably required) data services be?



    This looks to be a huge win for Apple, one that abruptly changes the "too expensive for normal folk" narrative, assuming the particulars aren't too horrible. Hope it's for real.
  • Reply 10 of 69
    .....
  • Reply 11 of 69
    backtomacbacktomac Posts: 4,579member
    I'm all for it but I think this may diminish the odds of a second, scaled down and cheaper, iPhone appearing later this year. Good news for me though as they had me after the keynote. Now they just made it cheaper.
  • Reply 12 of 69
    desarcdesarc Posts: 642member
    since this is a rumor, let me add my GUESS:

    if this is true, i'm guessing that it's 18 months of free unlimited DATA when you sign up for a VOICE plan.
  • Reply 13 of 69
    I'm curious to what Verizon's take is on the iPhone in general? I know there will be cool phones down the line, but I want one with Mac OS X on it... and I can't foresee that happening anytime soon with Verizon...



    I honestly thing quality-wise Verizon is a better company/service... I'm torn (i want the iphone).
  • Reply 14 of 69
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,015member
    First, I do think this is accurate. Cingular will take a loss on the service for 18 months for the sole reason of nailing Verizon. I have Verizon now, and I can tell you that I will absolutely convert to Cingular if this true. My cell bill, with mobile web, comes to $52.00 a month. That's a savings of $900 over two years, all for the privledge of using an amazingly revolutionary phone.



    However, there are some disadvantages to the phone that may hold me back or give me pause, at least. One is the lack of bluetooth support. That's kind of a deal killer as my Motorola E815 syncs perfectly with my 2007 Camry's system. It's really an amazing technology that I'm becoming addicted to. I also can sync the same phone with iCal and Address Book over bluetooth. So, I'm losing the Bluetooth feature and gaining full web...sort of. I can already use my E815 as a bluetooth modem, and so whenever I travel.
  • Reply 15 of 69
    filburtfilburt Posts: 398member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by desarc View Post


    since this is a rumor, let me add my GUESS:

    if this is true, i'm guessing that it's 18 months of free unlimited DATA when you sign up for a VOICE plan.



    I agree. Free voice plan for 18 months seem implausible. Heck, if it's free voice plan, I am willing to sign up with Verizon Wireless now and pay the termination fee for Cingular + iPhone. Unlimited data and/or SMS for 18 months makes more sense.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SDW2001 View Post


    However, there are some disadvantages to the phone that may hold me back or give me pause, at least. One is the lack of bluetooth support.



    iPhone has Bluetooth 2.0. Apple has yet to publish the list of profiles, but it does have Blueooth.
  • Reply 16 of 69
    desarcdesarc Posts: 642member
    everyone here who thinks cingular sux is just living in a spotty area. TOO BAD FOR YOU.

    i live in central CT and always have perfect reception, plus on ski trips to VT i get perfect reception where Verizon has NONE. it works fine in NYC, boston, coastal Maine, every ski town in CO that i've been to, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. i've had full reception in the middle of nowhere nebraska.

    i have NEVER had a problem w/ cingular... just ask people who live near you who have their service - that should tell you all you need to know.
  • Reply 17 of 69
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    I'll believe it when (if) it's announced. I don't see why they wouldn't have announced that at the time it was introduced if it's true. And the first 18 months out of a 24-month contract free? That just makes no sense.
  • Reply 18 of 69
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SDW2001 View Post


    However, there are some disadvantages to the phone that may hold me back or give me pause, at least. One is the lack of bluetooth support. That's kind of a deal killer as my Motorola E815 syncs perfectly with my 2007 Camry's system. It's really an amazing technology that I'm becoming addicted to. I also can sync the same phone with iCal and Address Book over bluetooth. So, I'm losing the Bluetooth feature and gaining full web...sort of. I can already use my E815 as a bluetooth modem, and so whenever I travel.



    Please tell me what part of Bluetooth you are losing. Apple's iPhone page says it supports Bluetooth 2.0/EDR. 2.0/EDR is not needed if you just wanted to use a Bluetooth headset.
  • Reply 19 of 69
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by domerdel View Post


    I'm curious to what Verizon's take is on the iPhone in general? I know there will be cool phones down the line, but I want one with Mac OS X on it... and I can't foresee that happening anytime soon with Verizon...



    I honestly thing quality-wise Verizon is a better company/service... I'm torn (i want the iphone).



    My guess: The Cingular/AT&T deal is exclusive for two years at most and Apple will eventually roll the the iPhone out to the other GSM carriers and bring out a CDMA iPhone for Verizon.



    There's just no reason for Apple to have given Cingular/AT&T exclusivity beyond two years and limit availability to the 20 percent (or whatever) of American mobile users that are on Cingular/AT&T.
  • Reply 20 of 69
    19841984 Posts: 955member
    Who said this was based on a 2-year contract? They are undoubtedly going have many different ones.
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